East Coast Music Awards Recap

From May 2nd-6th, we hung out in Halifax, Nova Scotia for the East Coast Music Awards. The ECMA Festival and Conference is now a five-day, non-stop musical celebration showcasing and recognizing the best of East Coast artists and music. The internationally recognized event gathers Canadian musicians from the East Coast, music industry professionals, and music fans to learn from the industry's most respected players and watch some of the country's brightest rising stars. This year, we presented the award for Electronic Recording of the Year, and had the chance to interview the five incredible nominees and watch them perform during…

Dánae Olano Live at Roland Canada

Dánae Olano performed at our Roland Inspiration Centre in Toronto for an evening of Afro Cuban Piano. A pianist and composer, Dánae has won several awards at festivals and piano contests and is a member of the band Maqueque, directed by saxophinst and composer Jane Bunnett. Born in 1992 in Havana, Cuba, Dánae began her…

Robbie Grunwald: My Time at Hillside Festival

Hillside is a truly special little bubble that has few parallels in the world of summer folk festivals. This past July, I had the pleasure of playing the Hillside Festival for the first time in my 10 plus years of being a professional touring musician. I can’t believe it has taken this long for me to…

Top Features of the Roland FP-30 Digital Piano

The Roland FP-30 Digital Piano is the latest innovation to come from Roland’s line of digital pianos. The instrument offers Roland’s acclaimed sound, feel and modern features while maintaining a light and compact design that fits everyone from the traveling musician to the classroom teacher. If you don’t have the space or budget for a…

Top 15 Roland Releases of ’15

A Chat with Jessica Beach

Jessica’s connection to music started at a young age, “A church down the street from our house had an old piano in their basement they were giving away. My dad put it in the garage and refinished it. I started playing it when I was 4.” Ultimately it allowed her to channel her creative energy…

A Chat with Bodhi Jones

Singer-songwriter, Bodhi Jones, discovered his passion for music from a young age and has developed his own unique brand of Alt-pop-Acoustic-rock over the years. Hailing from Saltspring Island, BC, Bodhi has been an active part of the west coast music scene since 2005. He’s recorded five Eps, three full length albums, and sold over 30,000 copies…

Musician of the Month – Wayne Stewart

Wayne Stewart is a familiar face at Vancouver’s highest profile cultural events as a musician, actor, and emcee. He’s also a singer, composer, keyboardist, guitarist, and teacher. His music is rooted in jazz and rhythm and blues, and the belief that music should always be, first and foremost, fun! – for both the players and the…

Tips For First Time Piano Buyers

The difficulty faced by many parents when purchasing their first piano for their child is finding the balance between purchasing a good sounding, quality instrument that will keep them interested, and one that won’t break the bank if they aren’t. Many parents face this scenario – your child shows an interest in learning to play…

The New Ground Breaking Roland Piano Designer App

Let me begin by stating the obvious – there will always be those who believe that the only acceptable piano is an acoustic piano, regardless of how good digital pianos become. And nearly all of the people who embrace digital pianos have their own personal and highly subjective opinions about what constitutes a ‘good’ piano….

Which one do I buy? FA-06 vs VR-09

Roland has two keyboard instruments that are just over the $1000 mark, the FA-06 Workstation and VR-09 Live Performance Synthesizer. I’ve had a number of keyboardists say that they were torn between the two and ask which instrument they should buy. In this post, I figured I would compare the two and give you some…